Antonio Badile (Verona 1518 ca. - 1560), Portrait of Girolamo della Torre

Oil on oak panel cm. 23x16,5. Framed The reverse of the panel bears an old inscription: “M.D.L.I. / […]HIERONYMVS TVRRIANVS / PRAEPOSITVS ECCLESIAE / VERONEN. PRIMVS”; a monogram and date: “A. B. 1552”; and the inventory number: “590”.

Probably trained in Verona by his uncle Francesco, who appointed him his heir, Antonio Badile maintained a highly successful workshop through which passed some of the finest Veronese artists of the following generation: Battista Zelotti, Orlando Flacco, Dario Varotari, and above all Paolo Veronese. Such an exceptional group of pupils leaves no doubt as to the prestige and authority achieved by Antonio on the Veronese artistic scene. Today known primarily for his altarpieces, Antonio Badile was also an excellent portrait painter, as the present panel clearly demonstrates, even though portraiture remains the least studied and sparsest area of his oeuvre.
The sitter depicted in the present painting belonged to an ancient and noble family which, at the date of the work, had only recently received the title of Counts from the Venetian Senate. The inscription on the reverse of the panel informs us of the ecclesiastical role of Monsignor Girolamo, provost regent, whom Badile portrays here at approximately fifty years of age. The elegant monogram explicitly recalls that of Dürer, whose painting Badile appears particularly attentive to in this work, endowing the portrait with a distinctly Northern quality—introspective, austere, and minutely realistic. E. SAFARIK, M.I. SAFARIK, Arte Ricercata. Nuovo capitolo del collezionismo mitteleeuropeo, Hradec Kralové 2016, pp. 19-24. Collection of Don Alfonso Falcó de Moura y Valcárcel, Marquis of Castel Rodrigo, Prince Pio of Savoy; thence by descent until 1998; private collection, Rome.